Susan Micari, author

Susan Micari is a storyteller drawn to lives shaped by resilience, loss, and the search for belonging.

Her debut novel, The Octopus Joy Dance, follows two Irish immigrant brothers in Queens who befriend Gus, an Enteroctopus dofleini—the largest octopus in the world—held at the New York Aquarium. In the wake of their mother’s death, Alfie and James form a fragile new family with the scientist who studies Gus, only to face a heartbreaking choice when the aquarium prepares to release him. Against the tides of grief and change, the boys learn what it means to love, and to let go. A sequel will trace their journey through first love in high school and the choices that shape their future in college.

Susan is also the screenwriter of Engine 9, now entering preproduction, the story of Richmond, Virginia’s first Black firehouse during segregation, and The Day We Turned White, a dramatic screenplay inspired by her great-grandfather, an Irish immigrant who integrated his local fire department at the turn of the last century—an era when signs in shop windows still read “No Irish Need Apply.”

A nationally board-certified educational therapist, Susan began her career teaching children in New York City homeless shelters to read, later building libraries and parent workshops for families in crisis. Earlier, she helped fight a landmark civil rights case that defined sexual harassment of adult students as illegal in New York City, work that contributed to Mayor Ed Koch’s executive order banning harassment in city agencies. Today, she continues to teach—most recently, Afghan women denied access to schooling under Taliban rule—holding fast to her belief that learning itself is a form of freedom.